Search This Blog

A wide choice of topics covered from the dawn of history right up to present days . Many of these have a wider relevance than purely within the context of Strathearn . The author's viewpoint often is at variance with the accepted opinions espoused elsewhere eg The Jacobite Uprisings and The Reformation .

College House Crieff( A letter written to the Strathearn Herald by Frederika Constance
Cummings on September 6th 1918)

Introduction

Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) was a travel writer and painter. She was born on 26 May 1837 at Altyre, near Forres in Scotland, the 12th child of a wealthy family. Her parents were Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet, and Elizabeth Maria (Campbell) Cumming. She was the aunt of Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet. She grew up in Northumberland, and was educated at Fulham, London. She taught herself how to paint, and had help from artists visiting her home, including one of Queen Victoria's favorite painters, Sir Edwin Landseer. After spending a year in India in 1867 and writing in In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains (1884)[1] she became interested in travel.
Gordon-Cumming was a prolific travel writer and landscape painter who traveled the world, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan. She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes. Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883.She died in Crieff and is buried at Ochtertyre being related to the Murray family .

The Letter

Sir ,

When writing my autobiography , I gave a
brief account of the remarkable variety of changes through which this quaint house
has passed . Though its probable age is probably not more than 150 years and
its situation at the top of the High Street must have kept it always prominent
in the annals of Crieff , I have been surprised at the difficulty in obtaining
accurate information concerning its many transformations . To begin with , I
was assured on apparently excellent , that Dr Malcolm , the original builder ,
was a medical man , and that his object was to found a Medical College .I know
that he was an LL.D and was for many years the school master at Madderty . He
built this house as a Boarding School for Boys . He was a student of Persian
and wrote several books . He made the first survey of Crieff which is now at
Dollerie .

After his death , the side wings of the
College were tenanted by sixteen families almost all handloom weavers ( of whom
upwards of six hundred were then living in Crieff ) . The central house was
divided between the Episcopalians of Crieff and the police – the former having
the large drawing room upstairs a s a week - day school , while on Sundays
services were conducted by Mr Wildman who was curate to Mr Lendrum , vicar of
the Episcopal Church at Muthill . The ground floor was occupied as a Police
Station whilst the basement ( including the present kitchen , scullery , larder
, &c ) was divided into cells for prisoners .

My mention of this last detail called
forth contradictions from various persons , who maintained that this could
never have been the case . I am, therefore ,happy to be now able to give details from the lips of our respectedfellow townsman , Mr Peter McGregor , joiner
, who when as an observant lad , aged about 18 lived in Dollerie Terrace ,
close to this college .He tells me that prior to about1848 , the sole representative of Police was
Fordyce ( without uniform )m and the Police Cells were in Lodge Street where
the Salvation Army now has its quarters . About the year 1848 it was found
necessary to deepen the channel of the River Pow and raise embankments from
Dollerie , Madderty , Millhills and near the present site of Abercairney
Station , to its junction with the Earn . This necessitated the presence of a
large body of Navvies , some being of a very rough type , consequently several
police constableswere imported and
stationed in College House , the cells for disorderly prisoners being on the
basement . McGregor vividly remembers seeing them being brought in by the
central gate in the wall which was then in front of College House .

When Mr Lendrum afterwards transformed
the whole building into St Margaret’s College for Girls , McGregor was employed
in building the spire which forms so conspicuous an object at the top of High
Street .

Yours faithfully

Constance F Gordon Cumming

There was an note added by the Editor :

{ We are afraid our mush esteemed correspondent Miss Gordon Cumming is
rather inaccurate in some of her statements .Our idea of Dr Malcolm’s
intentions as to his building were not so high as Miss Gordon Cumming puts it.
We rather think it was a building “spec”. But let that pass . It is quite true
that our old and respected townsman was for long the terror of those who did
evil in Crieff , but if our memory does not deceive us, there was several
before 1848, another policeman and he in uniform named Manson , who resided if
we mistake not , in Lodge Street .The “ lock –up “ as the jail was then called
was not in the present Salvation Army Barracks but in the cellar east of it ,
now used by Mr Cameron , grocer .During the protracted time occupied in
rebuilding the present Town House , there were several queer places used as
jails and this was one of them .}

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A number of years ago I purchased a small booklet on Glen Artney in the book shop
that existed for some years in Drummond Street Comrie. The
author was the late Gordon Booth FSA , a superb researcher and accomplished
author . He was not a local man since moving to the village from I believe the Island of Islay in the
Inner Hebrides. Since arriving in the area, he had
read and assimilated much of the history and folk lore of this part of
the Strath .I recall the late Tom Weir (
of the woolly hat ) doing a programme in his Weir’s Way series on Glen Artney
an d featuring Gordon Booth . Regrettably
all seven of his little books are out of print although they may be
available to borrow through Perth and Kinross Library Service. I have
incorporated partial excerpts from his writings
in this blog on the Glen which I duly acknowledge as a fitting tribute to his
diligence .

Glen Artney is some eight or so miles in length from the former
prisoner of war camp at Cultybraggan
near Com…

There has been
considerablediscussionrecently regarding thestate of decrepitude ofmany of the olderand betterknownbuildingsin Crieff . The Drummond Arms , the old
Parish Church in Church Street ( aka the Community Hall ) , the George or Strathearn
Hotel and the old Crown Hotel in East High Street . Onedoesnotto travel too far back in
timeto recallthefate ofmany other fine buildings
in Crieff and indeed in Strathearn on a wider basis . Although I devoteda small spacesomemonthsback to Ferntower HouseI finditso fascinating that I
havedecided I am going to elaborate furtherandincludemore informationabout it andits mostcelebrated occupant
General SirDavid Bairdwhose monument dominates so much of the
Strath . It was a building not renownedforany great architectural
meritbut rather for its part in the
overalltapestry oflife in the Strath over two centuries . Once the home of the Preston family in the 15th
century the lands of Ferntower were forfeited to the Crown .These
landsseemed separate …

An Account Of One Of The Most Bloody Political/Religious Battles Fought In This Part Of Scotland The Battle of Tibbermore /Tibbermure

Victory by the Back Door The surge in the amount of violence and mayhem in the Middle
East and in targeted European (including British) locations has caused much grief and sadness to innocent families
and individuals . Atrocities carried out
in the name of religion are not something
that has suddenly occurred .They
have been part of society for longer than we might imagine .

The period of the 1640s in Scotland was one of violent confrontation between the
Royalists faction supporting the Stewart monarch Charles 1 and the fiercely
Presbyterian adherents known as Covenanters . Despite the efforts of James VI
to introduce Bishops into the Kirk , the Covenanters with their
power base in the south and south
west of Scotland were vociferous and militant in pursuit of their cause . In
1644 they marched south into
England to lend support to the Engl…

Retired part time lecturer at Perth College and former rugby correspondent to our local paper the Strathearn Herald .Former President and a Honorary Member of Crieff & Strathearn Rugby Club. Written 4 books on the local history of Strathearn .